When was the last time that Michigan didn't come out looking like garbage during the first 10 minutes of the game? They've been able to come back a few times, but it's been so ugly at the beginning. 8 points during the first 12 minutes tonight. That is awful. I would expect a team of 5 Aaron Crafts to be able to score 8 points in 12 minutes.

This team looks like absolute shit right now. I guess they listened to all the talk of "Michigan will win the next 4 games" and have taken everything forgranted, hence them potentially shitting away their path to the B1G title. I might start watching again later, but for now, I'd prefer to watch something that doesn't want to make me rip my hair out.

about as much sense as your post. They aren't rebounding, they aren't protecting the rim, and they aren't finishing at the basket. The guards shooting is only part of the problem. The reason we only have 12 fucking points isn't because the Purdue guards are making shots.

Good God why do we keep jacking up long shots...granted we keep turning the ball over now anyway. Gotta find ways to get to the rack for higher efficiency shots and then let the long jumpers come once the rhythm is there(granted they're not far off on the 3 balls, they're close).

Why allow a streaky shooting team to find the range with wide open looks? Purdue is defending us better than anyone else this season thus far. This game is teetering on getting out of reach before halftime....you cannot continue to have abysmal starts and win basketball games. I'm baffled at how this team starts basketball games. Why is there such a lack of focus?

I know Brian touched on it a little bit a week or two ago, but is Michigan the worst first half team in the country this year? Out of, say, top 50 or 100 teams. I can't think of any other team off the top of my head that consistently puts itself in massive holes every game and still wins games. It's incredibly frustrating to watch. They are either on fire or ice cold in first halves and there is usually no between.

They'll have it down to 5 or so by the break, and I see them roaring out in the second half. Too many good shooters on Michigan, and the Johnson brothers aren't going to play out of their mind the entire way.

Because it is becoming obvious the chances of a deep run in the tourny like last year are not good. You have to a more well rounded team in order to do that.

Doubting this team will find what is lacking on the defensive end of the floor between now and then.I could understand it when they didn't have great athletes a couple of a years ago, but they have better athletes now.

In general, homecooking in college basketball may be the norm, but that doesn't mean it is not a horrible aspect of the sport. Sport would be better off if it changed, though I doubt that will ever happen. You don't see this bullshit in college football nearly as often.

With that said, while the officials aren't helping the way, the way UM is playing is the bigger problem tonight.

This is the part where we all freak out and certain posters start talking about how much such-and-such guy sucks and how the offense is just standing around too much and do these guys even get coached?

AND THEN we miraculously turn it on and win big. And then we neg the shit out of those posters...

But when we constantly have these types of starts, that speaks to me as a coaching problem.

When you see something happen a couple of times, you can probably chalk that up to a player issue but when its the same thing, time and time again, like these horrible starts, i think its a coaching problem.

He has done great things at UM, but you have to wonder about the consistent lack of rebounding and defense. Some of that is a clearly a lack of effort. Do you really believe this team doesn't have good enough athletes to better than horrible on the defensive end of the floor?

I mean, in past years we chalked it up to having less than optimal athletes, but now this team is better in that department and it is still a significant issue.

Obviously not worshipping everything Beilein related is clearly not accepted on this board. He is clearly the best coach this program has had in while, that still does not mean he is exempt from any criticism. It shouldn't fall 100% on the players.

However, small ball is becoming more common in college basketball , which makes it less of a disadvantage than in the past.

Also size does not 100% explain giving up a large number of uncontested jump shots every game. People can argue it all the want, but that is a simply a lack of effort. They are also horrible in terms of fighting through screens.

ANOTHER bad start, missed Fts, STUPID tunovers, missed EASY layups..Morgan with his usual fumblitits and missed fts...God this team is frustrating...when there bad there bad, Better get their act together and QUICK or they are going to blow all the seasons hard work and totally negate the MSU win if they lose here

I'm not saying it's a good thing, but it doesn't necessitate constant complaining or blaming. We missed a bunch of shots, had some bad passes. Purdue has also been on fire. If a couple of theirs don't fall and a couple of our good shots do, this is a 4-5 point game.

I should have been more specific, so people with only a rudimentary understanding of English could understand.

We shot well below our average and they shot well above their average. Some of that has to do with defense, but many of our misses (including our free throws) were open shots. Had that been nearer the mean, this would be a close game right now. We have actually taken more shots than they have in this game.

Sometimes your shots aren't falling, and sometimes their shots do. It doesn't have to turn into an OMG THIS TEAM FUCKING BLOWZ thread because of it.